Mentoring and Coaching is increasingly recognised as one of the most effective ways to enhance the skills and behaviours of others. Coaching is about helping others to help themselves. Following the proverb:
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
The Skills involved can be used when supporting your direct reports and working with your colleagues.
Coaching is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be
The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring
Research suggests that there are benefits for the Coachee (Person being coached), Coach and the Organisation as result of a Coaching intervention.
For example for a Manager if you can coach your team and empower them to undertake some key tasks it provides you with more time to undertake the added value activities ‘working on the business and not in the business”. As a manager what activities are you doing in which you could delegate to your team? Why are you not coaching your team to do these tasks – is it because it better, faster and easier to do it yourself? [The problem is if you don’t teach someone else to do it, you will forever have to do it yourself]. What would you do with all this extra time you have saved?
As for an employee being coached, this can also have lots of benefits. Based on the idea of Frederick Hertzberg, some of the key motivators for people at work are sense of achievement, recognition, relationship with colleagues and status. Coaching sessions can provide an excellent platform to discuss and address these motivators as key challenges and opportunities are discussed along with options and actions to address are agreed. What motivates your colleagues? When do you discuss these motivators with them? What effect would a happier and enthusiastic workforce have on your organisation?
So is Coaching right for you and your organisation?
Answer the following 10 questions:
- Would you benefit from employees learning how to solve their own problems and not always come to you for the solution ?
- Are you repeatedly helping the same people with the same problems and so need them to break this cycle ?
- Would it be helpful for people to have a safe environment where they can share how they are feeling, try out new ideas and get feedback ?
- Do employees sometimes need help to sort out personal issues that might otherwise affect performance at work ?
- Are you in a rapidly evolving business environment and would you benefit to learn and adapt is quickly becoming an essential skill ?
- Do you need to support employees who’ve been promoted to cope with new responsibilities and skills ?
- Could decision-making of senior employees be improved so they feel confident and competent make those difficult everyday decisions ?
- Are you looking for an alternative to Training as research suggests that some people learn best when they can specifically talk about issues relevant to them and their role ?
- Do you think someone has lots of potential and could perform even better ?
- Has someone develop a ‘bad attitude’ or has become demotivated or you want to change how they are feeling ?
If you answered YES to any of the above you may be interested in developing a Coaching programme for your organisation. You might want to explore who might need a coach and who in your organisation has the potential to be a great coach
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